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Month: November 2016

Can you believe that 2017 is within spitting distance? As I get older, it seems like time is accelerating at a blinding pace. In fact, it feels like the years are flying by at an exponential rate. This gives me pause to consider how I go about increasing the quality of the days I have left.

One of the best ways I’ve found is to surround myself with the voices of those who are where I’d like to be. Who are your mentors? Your heroes? Who are those men and women who have accomplished those things that you’ve only dreamed about? Those are the voices of hope and reason amid the chaos of mediocrity.

My dream is to be an author who makes a difference with my art in the lives of others. A voice crying in the wilderness guiding people to the green pastures of joy, hope, peace, and victory. So, I’m listening to men and women like Michael Hyatt, John Maxwell, Andy Andrews, Joyce Meyers, and others whom I respect and trust. They are all where I want to be.

This year, I’m determined to make huge strides toward my objectives. If you’re like me, I’d like to share a free ebook I’ve found that I am going to use to get me down the road toward my goals in 2017 and beyond.

I’ll confess, I can tend to be a half full. You know the type, the skeptic, the realist, you know negative. God has been walking me through a process of renewing my mind. Here’s what He’s been teaching me. For several years now, I can’t get off Romans 12:2, Phil 4:8, and Ephesians 2:6. Joyce Meyer’s says, “You never fail God’s tests, you just keep taking them over and over until you get it right.”

Is it just me, or sometimes does life stink? You think things will work out one way and everything seems to turn out just the opposite of what you’re believing for? You were believing for the sweet life, and you got lemons.

So, when life throws you a lemon, how do you reboot your mind to get it lined up with the Word?

How do you make lemons into lemonade?

You add sugar.

Gratitude is like adding sugar to lemon juice.

It makes sour things sweet.

Studies show that being grateful and giving thanks effects every area of your life. It effects your physical, mental, and emotional health.

Here’s how gratitude reboots your thinking:

1. It honors God – the word actually commands us to give thanks to Him, Psalm 100, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise.” In 1 Samuel 2:30 – God says, “I will honor those who honor me.”

2. It renews your thinking by changing your focus from what you don’t have to what you do have.

3. It’s God’s antidepressant – you can only have 1 thought at a time, you can’t think a grateful thought and a depressed thought at same time. It is impossible!

3 Ways to Increase Your Gratitude

Start a gratitude journal – write down all those things your grateful for and read and add to it during your devotional time.

Get a gratitude accountability friend – Someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth.

Hang around grateful people.

Even when gratitude doesn’t change your circumstances, it changes your perspective – from the lens that is limited by your circumstance, to the unlimited lens of God’s perspective.